The media personality - who launches her own panel show If Katie Hopkins Ruled The World next month - said it is "ridiculous" to live in a country "where we can put dogs to sleep but not people".

Her comments come shortly after she admitted regretting some of the extreme language she used against migrants in a column she wrote in The Sun entitled ''Rescue boats? I'd use gunships to stop migrants''.

In an interview by Michael Buerk in Radio Times magazine, Hopkins said: "We just have far too many old people."

She added: "It's ridiculous to be living in a country where we can put dogs to sleep but not people."

Asked for her solution, she said: "Easy. Euthanasia vans - just like ice-cream vans - that would come to your home."

The former Celebrity Big Brother contestant added: "It would all be perfectly charming. They might even have a nice little tune they'd play. I mean this genuinely. I'm super-keen on euthanasia vans.

"We need to accept that just because medical advances mean we can live longer, it's not necessarily the right thing to do."

The 40-year-old mother-of-three also reflected on her school days and voiced her support for separating children in the classroom.

"They split you into A and B streams, which was great because you knew you were with the bright ones and all the thick kids were in the B group.

"It was fine and super-efficient - I still think so. If you're slow, go sit with the slow kids. None of this endless negotiation, discussion, 'golden time' nonsense you get in state schools these days," she said.

Hopkins sparked outrage in April when she described migrants as ''cockroaches'' and ''feral humans'', prompting the UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, to denounce her for using racist language and comparing her comments to pro-genocide propaganda.

She prides herself on never having apologised for anything she has said.

But she told the Press Association: ''There's some things about that column, there are some words which in hindsight you'd probably look to pull out of there.

''But I think overall my message isn't about the idea that we want to see migrants and people suffering, it's an idea that we need to find solutions to problems.''